Life expectancy for men drops by more than four years in some areas of Italy amid pandemic

Life expectancy for men in some areas in Italy has dropped by more than four years amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Associated Press reported.

According to a report from the country’s national statistics bureau, ISTAT, the average life expectancy of all children born in Italy in 2020 dropped by 1.2 years. 

In the Italian provinces of Bergamo, Cremona, and Lodi, life expectancy for men in that region dropped by 4.3  to 4.5 years and women’s life expectancy dropped by 3.2 to 2.9 years, the AP noted.

For males born in 2020, the overall life expectancy for the nation dropped to 79.9 years and for females their life expectancy is at 84.4 years, according to ISTAT data. 

ISTAT also cited that the ongoing pandemic played a role in the “sharp increase” in mortality, according to the AP.

“In 2020, the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sharp increase in the risk of mortality that derived from it abruptly interrupted the increase of life expectancy at birth that had marked a trend up to 2019,” ISTAT said in the news release.

The new report comes amid another wave of COVID-19 infections, as the highly contagious delta variant is hitting the unvaccinated hard worldwide.